Oconto
County WIGenWeb ProjectCollected
and posted by RITAThis site
is exclusively for the FREE access of individual
researchers.* No profit
may be made by any person, business or organization through
publication,
reproduction, presentation or linksto this site.Questions?
E-mailRITAPrepared for posting by Cathe Ziereis

Oconto
County Times-Herald

February 16 , 2000A History Of Logging In Oconto County

The Times Herald continuing their
publication of excerpts from the
book, "A History Of Logging In
Oconto County"
from the McCauslin to Jab Switch. The author is Della
Rucker. Photos
and editing is by Diane Nichols, Oconto County Historical Association.
The project coordination is by Bruce Mommaerts of the Oconto Co.
Economic
Development Corp.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Oconto County's peak logging era
extended from the 1850s into the 1920s During that time the types of
logs, harvested, and some of the specifi methods of, logging, changed a
great deal, but the basic characteristic of logging work and the
logging economy remained much the same. Ocont was one of several
northern Wisconsin counties that participated heavil in logging. The
basic pattern of events in Oconto County was repeated with some
variation in methods and time frames, across norther Wisconsin,
Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In all o these places,
pine logging started in the mid- 1800s, continued to abou 1900, and was
replaced by hardwood logging, which lasted through th first decades of
the twentieth century. Logging methods in the same tim period were
often very similar from one state to the next. Therefore many lumber
businessmen and lumber- jacks could move on to work in man different
regions.

Loggers in Oconto County and elsewhere began cutting pine in th
mid-1800s for many reasons. First, pine was the type of Wood mos
popular in the United, States for constructing buildings, as well as fo
making other basic necessities, such as plows and wagons. Pine is a sof
wood, which makes it easier to cut and carve, and pine trees tended t
produce long, straight pieces of wood with relatively few knots.
In a era when few items could be made solely by a machine, and even
doors an window frames were often made by hand, this workability was
ver important. Pine also floats well, which made transportation much
easier since pine logs could be floated down river to a mill. Other
types o logs would often sink to the bottom. No roads or railroads
existed yet so transporting logs overland was almost impossible.

Additionally, by the 1830s and 1840s, southern Wisconsin and Illinoi
were drawing thousands of new settlers, many of whom started farms o
the prairies. These prairie farms had good soil, but not enough timbe
to build houses and barns. Settlers on these farms desperately neede
sawed lumber. The older sawmills in the eastern United States could no
meet their demand. As a result, mills in Oconto County and elsewhere i
the Upper Midwest were able to sell all the pine lumber they coul
manufacture to these fast growing areas to the south.

Most importantly, Oconto County was part of a huge area that wa
naturally forested with millions of huge pine trees, many of which wer
over six feet in diameter and several hundred feet tall. Many of thes
trees rose straight up 100 to 200 feet before branching out. Ocont
Countys early lumbermen could get a great deal of long, clear boards ou
of such a tree with relatively little work, and could often demand good
price for their lumber. As a result, lumber camps almos exclusively cut
pine during the 1800s. Very few pines such as the, one they cut are
left today, but there is one stand, known as the Cathedra Pines near
Archibald Lake, that still has several of these origina giants. This
woods was left uncut at the request of the owner's wife Looking at
these huge trees helps a person understand how much pin timber must
have come out of Oconto County

WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND LOGGIN

Almost all lumberjacks, cruisers,
and other logging camp employees wer men, as were most people in most
paying jobs in the late nineteenth an early twentieth centuries. The
physical demands of logging and the roug wilderness lifestyle led most
men and women of that era to believe tha women could never do logging
work, since Americans commonly thought tha all women were weaker than
men. Gender stereotypes such as this exclude women from many jobs, not
only in logging but in most other fields a well. It is clear however
that women in Oconto County and elsewher during this period did a great
deal more than many people thought the could. Women filled essential
jobs in lumber camps, while other wome did demanding work that made it
possible for their husbands and brother to work in the woods during the
winter. From a very young age childre also worked hard, both in the
logging camps and in the home.

One of the most common ways that women participated directly in loggin
was as the camp cook or cookee. Few books on logging mention this fact
but historic photos and first person accounts make clear that many camp
had a female cooking staff. This was particularly true in jobber an
independent camps. In many cases, the cook was the jobber's or cam
foreman's wife, while the bull cook might be the cook's adult daughte
or sister. Women tended to fall into the cook's roles because, of th
domestic cooking and cleaning they commonly did in the home, but cookin
for a logging camp demanded stamina and considerable physical strength
Staples such as flour and salt pork were stored in barrels that ofte
weighed over one hundred pounds each. The large kettles and pots wer
usually made of cast iron, also extremely heavy. Camp cooks often worke
over an open fire, fireplace, or wood burning stove, and cooks had t
make most items, such as bread, completely from scratch. Logging cam
cooks had to prepare meals for anywhere from ten to sixty or more peopl
per day. Such meals included a wider variety of foods and a large
quantity of food than would be prepared in virtually any household. I
addition, the quality and quantity of the food served in a camp ofte
determined whether its owners would succeed or go bankrupt, since camp
with poor food could not keep their lumberjacks for long. As a result
women who cooked for logging camps had a great deal of influence ove
the camp's operation. The wife of popular logger Herman Dieck of Suring
for example, often cooked in the camps her husband operated. The qualit
of his camps' cooking was cited as one of the reasons for his success.

Women also frequently visited logging camps as representatives o
religious and moral issues organizations. Nuns, for example, frequentl
traveled to logging camps seeking donations to orphanages and schools
Representatives of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, a nineteent
century organization devoted to stopping the sale and consumption o
alcohol, convinced hundreds of lumberjacks in northern Wisconsin to sig
a pledge stating that they would never drink liquor again. Such wome
took serious risks in order to bring their messages to lumber camps
since travel in the unsettled wilderness was difficult and dangerou
even for experienced woodsmen, let along visitors from more civilize
areas. Although individual lumberjacks may not have agreed with such
visitor's values or requests, most accounts claim that such women wer
almost universally treated with respect.

Children also worked in logging,
often as assistants to the cook
or asthe camp's "chore boy." Depending on the size of the
camp, pre-teen
andteenaged girls often helped their mothers or older
sisters with
thecooking and cleaning. Again, this was particularly
common in jobber
andindependent camps where the foreman or operator was
likely to be
thechild's father and the cook was often her mother. Boys
of the same
agealso often worked in their parents' camps, but boys
whose parents
werenot in logging could also hire on as a camp employee.
Although choreboys' work days were long and strenuous, and their pay
usually much
lessthan that of the other camp employees, the job allowed
them to learn
agreat deal about the work of a lumber camp, knowledge
that often
helpedthem land a better paying job in later years. Many chore
boys were
sentto lumber camps in order to earn cash for the family; a
chore boy's
payoften bought his brothers' and sisters', and even his
parents' shoes,farm tools, and other necessities. Working children of
all kinds,whether in logging camps or other places, often had to
send most
oftheir pay directly to their parents. It should be
remembered that
mostrural Wisconsin children ages thirteen or fourteen
during the loggingera were expected to work at a job or on the family farm
full- time.
Fewchildren completed more than eight years of schooling;
families
neededtheir children's work, whether paid or on the family
farm, to helpsupport the family as a whole.

As mentioned previously, most
lumberjacks had homes and farms elsewhereand spent winters working in the camps. Although logging
often providedmost of the family's camp income, this seasonal work
also required
thatwomen and children take over many of the farm and
community tasks
thatmen generally did in non logging areas. Tending
livestock, maintainingfarm buildings, and doing other farm work required that
women and
theirfamilies have considerable strength and stamina. Women
also had
to takecare of children, and sometimes dependent elders while
keeping the
farmin operation; much of the care of smaller children often
fell to
oldersiblings who were not yet large enough to help with the
heavy farmlabor. In rural communities where the men were absent
much of the
year,women also did much of the work needed for the community
to function.Several rural post offices in northern Oconto County
were operated
bywomen.Mary Roblee Gillett, for example, ran the post
office from
herhome in the 1870s, while her husband Rodney, who had
been appointedpostmaster, was absent for months at a time as he
operated his camps.Other women worked as midwives and nurses, providing
essential medicalcare in rural locations where a visit to the nearest
doctor mightrequire a trip of several days. In these ways women and
children
madecertain that families and communities continued to
function, even
whenthe male labor that much of the country considered
essential wasvirtually absent from the local setting.